Adventures in mixed drinks

The Finnishing Line

So, Tuesday. Tuesday saw the Soulshakers roll into town to kick off the 2009 Finlandia Finnishing School, which made for an excellent day of vodka tasting and training along with a regional qualifier for the 12th Finlandia Vodka Cup. The competition proved to a great end to the day, given that I came second and qualified for the UK final in November.

There were some really interesting points raised during the day, not least when Marku - the brand ambassador from Finland - suggested we try to think about vodkas into three distinct categories: as a clean, pure spirit, as a medicinal, slightly sweet Russian style, and as a bold, more robust style. Marku's dream, he said, was that people would talk about variation in vodkas as they do when discussing whiskies.

All in all, a good (long) day. In other news, you should totally check out Under The Stairs when it's not full of sweaty bartenders drinking neat, room temperature vodka.